So my query is: how exactly should one copy a Fedora system to another partition?
Assuming ext2 or ext3, use dump and restore in a pipeline. cd to the restore point, dump the raw source device, and pipe that to restore which will drop it into the current directory (ie. the destination disk).
Something like this (untested): cd /mnt/newdisk dump 0f /dev/sda1 | restore xf -
